All That Matters

Whenever I meet researchers working in low-temperature physics, the worry are helium prices. When I did my PhD a long time ago, I was able to buy 100 litre dewars of liquid helium without thinking too much about its price.

Since then, times have changed a lot, and prices have multiplied over the past years. The reason is that helium is a scarce commodity. In the atmosphere, helium is impossible to catch and most of it comes from underground, created by the radioactive decay of heavy elements. The United States have a large stockpile underground in Texas, which when depleted will mean the end of most usable helium sources.

To combat the rising prices, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society and the US Defense Department’s procurement agency are now planning to bundle their forces and to buy helium for researchers at volume discounts. Nothing wrong with that, this is certainly a good idea that will make it easier for US researchers to do cryogenic experiments.

Regardless, we should not forget that helium is not a renewable resource. One group of scientists using more of it at a cheaper price ultimately means shortages elsewhere. Whether it is for science and researchers elsewhere on the globe, for medical NMR equipment, or in other areas. This is where we still need to work on. Either through improved cryostats in research, or by avoiding unnecessary uses of helium, such as in helium party balloons, which incredibly are still being sold to be released into the atmosphere for nothing.

This morning I read an article by the Scientific American editor David Biello on an important topic: the importance of rare earth elements for our economy, and the power of those few countries that export them on a larger scale. (disclaimer: Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group, my employer)

David hits an important point there. But to my mind, the problem is far more critical and fundamental than this single, focussed example suggests, and we need to act on it soon.

Salt production at Salar de Uyuni. This salt flat harbours 50% of the world's lithium reserves. Image by Ricampelo via Wikimedia Commons.

The issue is that rare earth elements such as neodymium are essential to green energy and our economy. Neodymium is part of Nd₂Fe₁₄B, a powerful permanent magnet that is used for electromotors, read heads of hard disk drives, etc. Each wind turbine apparently uses 300 kg of neodymium, each Toyota Prius about 1 kg. At present, China produces 97% of all neodymium.

And this is the problem. China has implemented export controls for its rare earth elements resources. In a recent diplomatic spat with Japan, they temporarily restricted the export of rare earth elements to Japan. But the Chinese should not take all the blame for a little realpolitik. Heard of the 1973 oil crisis?

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